


Teen Wolf, Season 1, Episode 9, Wolf's Bane

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s01e09 Wolf's Bane, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 01, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-22
Updated: 2018-09-22
Packaged: 2019-07-15 11:06:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16061837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for both the episode and the rest of the series. Complete.





	Teen Wolf, Season 1, Episode 9, Wolf's Bane

Clever title. The bane of a wolf/wolves rather than wolfs bane. 

Open to Harris at school. He's closing up for the night, and he finds a list on his desk. All the names but his are crossed out.

The plague on his desk reads Prof. Adrian R. Harris.

He doesn't give much of a reaction to the list until he hears alpha Peter behind him. It's clear Peter's still in beast-like form, but here, he speaks. I don't know if it's Ian Bohen's voice or not, but if so, it's been altered.

"Please, don't kill me," Harris begs.

"Do you know who wrote that list?"

"Laura. Laura Hale," he answers.

"Do you know why she was looking for you? I know why."

Fandom's decided Deaton was the Hale emmissary, and some meta writers aren't sure. What if Harris was?

That would add another layer to his interactions with Stiles and the others. He has some idea what Stiles is/will/might be, and he's worried or resentful or both, but he's also compelled to be a sort of guide. From a Sterek perspective it's even more interesting. Does he think Stiles will one day be Scott's emissary, or does he know/fear/acknowledge the possibility Stiles will be the new Hale one?

"Turn around, Adrian."

He refuses.

"Look at me. Look at what you've done."

A chair is thrown, and appearing, Derek saves Harris from being hit by another chair, but I'm not sure he saved his life here. If alpha Peter was resolved to kill him, he's already shown he's not above hurting his nephew if his nephew gets in the way.

Outside, the police announce the building is surrounded, and Derek runs.

Both Sheriff S and hunters are chasing him, and when Chris informs Kate over the phone that Derek’s on foot, she doesn’t tell him someone else is driving the car she’s been following, even though, I think that might just maybe be relevant information.

Or is she joining the chase without him realising she is? It could be, he told her to stay home and he'd call with updates, and she agreed before promptly grabbing her phone and setting out to catch Derek and/or the alpha herself.

As to who’s driving the car she’s following, the answer is Scott with Stiles riding shotgun.

Meanwhile, Sheriff S sends K9s after Derek, but Derek makes them run back to their handlers.

First, were the dogs supposed to attack Derek? Do police actually train dogs to attack people? I guess that wouldn’t surprise me, but I thought K9s were mainly for following scents and detecting drugs/explosives. Or were they just supposed to follow him, in which case, a genuine murderer of innocent people who might be armed could have done a lot worse than Derek did.

Second, someone pointed out Derek constantly doing this is likely a big reason why there are no K9s in later seasons. I just really hope the too-traumatised to work dogs were given loving forever homes where they lived out their lives in happiness.

Back in the car, Scott and Stiles realise their chaser is gone, and Stiles turns on his walkie-talkie to hear his dad give Derek’s location.

At said location, Chris is shooting at Derek, and Scott pulls up. Stiles hurriedly climbs into the backseat, and one of them yells for Derek to get in. He does, and Scott asks what part of lying low Derek doesn’t understand.

“Damn it! I had him!”

“The alpha,” Stiles inquires.

“Yes, he was right in front of me, and the- freaking police showed up.”

This amuses me. Some people who would never drop an f-bomb, but many people, especially in situations such as this one, would use it. Derek would definitely be using it if not for the fact he’s on a network that doesn’t allow it. To be honest, I’m not sure Derek’s pause wasn’t Hoechiln mentally reminding himself to use the family-friendly substitute.

Stiles defends the police, and Derek is understandably grumpy about Scott making him a fugitive. Scott wants him to get past this, and they both paint him as unreasonable for not trusting them.

Someday, he will be justified in trusting Stiles. He has good reason to never trust Scott, and it’s unfortunate that there’s a time when he does to some extent.

He explains, the last time he talked to Laura, she was close to figuring something out about Harris. He shows them a drawing, and Scott recognises it as Allison’s necklace.

The next day, at school, Stiles suggests Scott remind Allison of the good times, and then, ask for her necklace.

This is terrible advice.

Also, the reason given for needing physical possession of the necklace is to see if there’s anything on it or in it that might lead them to the alpha, but this seems like a pretty weak lead to me.

Meanwhile, Jackson is getting his neck examined, and he hallucinates Dr Conrad Fenris tortures on him. Then, Dr Fenris turns into Derek.

Fenris here is played by Posey’s dad, John Posey.

There were hints in the later seasons some of the characters might have been experimented on as either young children or even when they were in uteri. I wonder if there were plans for Jackson to be one of them.

After the hallucination is over, Dr Fenris says Jackson has a case of wolfs bane poisoning.

In the hospital lobby, Jackson asks Melissa if he can borrow her laptop. And Melissa is wearing the same scrubs as she was last time.

No, of course, she is. Because, I posted a rant on the internet about her constantly changing scrubs.

If I was wrong, I sincerely apologise, and I know to be more careful about going on about things that bug me. If I was right, however, I will be pointing out every time she does have on different scrubs.

She asks if he’s one of Scott’s friends. He lies they’re good friends, and leaving, she gives him permission. Looking up wolfs bane, he laughs at whatever he finds. He leaves, and returning, Melissa looks at her computer.

Is there a reason he couldn’t have looked this up at home or school?

At school, he corners Scott. Declaring he knows what Scott is, he threatens, if Scott doesn’t get him the mysterious thing so that he can be it, too, he’s going to make Allison find out what Scott is.

With Jackson’s refusal to say ‘werewolf’, Scott could call his bluff.

There’s a transition to Stiles and Scott talking, and Stiles establishes, whatever Jackson implied, he didn’t actually say the word. He tells Scott to focus on getting the necklace.

In a class they have together, Scott tries to sit next to Allison, but getting there first, Lydia directs him to find a different seat.

When it comes to later seasons, I love protective, take no-nonsense Lydia, but considering what she did last episode, it falls flat here.

Sitting behind Lydia, Scott tells Allison he’s sent her something via phone. Unhappy with this, she leaves, and he follows.

For all my issues with Harris, at least, he showed a realistic reaction when students left his class. The same can’t be said for this teacher.

In the hallway, Scott insists he honestly thought what he sent would make Allison happy, and she makes it clear she wants him not to contact her.

At lunch, Stiles’s reaction is, “Just steal the stupid thing!”

With this being fiction, I’ll agree. If having the necklace is truly necessary, this is actually the best option they have at the moment.

Scott suggests they try going with the Harris angle, but Stiles has found out Harris is under a 24/7 protective watch detail.

Harris likely told one heck of a story to the police, but I still find it both amusing and baffling: A man is found attacked, the police don’t know if it was an animal or another human, and they just drop him in a hospital with no security, but a physically unharmed man has two chairs thrown at him, and he’s granted 24/7 protection.

Across the lunch room, Jackson is sitting with Lydia and Allison. He starts talking to Scott, and neither of them notice. Eventually, he moves to a vending machine, and he threatens to destroy any chance Scott has with Allison by getting with her himself.

Any chance of Scott casting doubt about him not hearing all this is dashed when he breaks his tray in half. The entire cafeteria notices this.

In swim practise, Jackson flirts with Allison, and she’s somewhat receptive. He convinces her to come to a lacrosse game.

Meanwhile, Scott is stewing about this as he goes through her stuff.

Right now, stealing the necklace might lead him to a murderous werewolf he wants to stop/kill, but still: He has no moral high ground to get huffy about the fact a girl he’s not involved with is showing interest in another boy when he himself is literally going through her things without her knowledge and permission.

Later, in the hallway, Lydia confronts Jackson about a breakup text he sent her, and he makes it clear they’re through.

He’s a complete jerk about it, but one, a person doesn’t need to justify breaking up with someone. Two, from Lydia’s POV, however, there should be a potential reason this is happening, and her choosing to ignore it irritates me.

He doesn’t bring up the cheating, and I’m not sure how much he actually cares, but how does she think she’d react if he’d been the one to cheat?

Even if the answer is honestly that she’d stay with him, and I’m not sure if she would, does she really think there’s something so special about her that she believes she can expect anyone else to stay after she did such a thing?

Over at the Stilinski residence, Stiles goes into his room, and he doesn’t see Derek standing behind the door. Sheriff S calls out to Stiles, and turning, Stiles sees Derek.

Derek is silently spastic, and Stiles goes to go talk to his dad.

Sheriff S is proud of Stiles for getting to play on the field, and making things awkward, Stiles tries to both say the right things and end the conversation quickly.

When he gets back into his room, Derek pushes him against the door. He issues threats, and Stiles isn’t having it.

“Oh, what, you mean like, ‘Hey, Dad, Derek Hale’s in my room, bring your gun?’”

Derek lessens his grip, and Stiles continues, “Yeah, that’s right. If I’m harbouring your fugitive ass, it’s my house, my rules, buddy.” He whaps Derek’s chest to truly get the point across.

Nodding, Derek lets go of Stiles.

Stiles is smug, and glowering, Derek invades his personal space.

They talk about the text Scott didn’t send Allison, and Derek asks if Stiles can find out who sent it. No, but he knows someone who can.

Meanwhile, Scott is breaking into Allison’s room.

The necklace is a weak lead. Trying to steal it at school is one thing, but breaking into a hunter’s house to get it is unlikely to be worth the risk.

Back in Stiles’s, he has Danny over. It’s established Danny was arrested for hacking when he was thirteen, and I wonder what, if any, plans there were for Danny during the benefactor arc. Stiles wants his help tracing the text, but Danny insists he’s only there to do their lab work. Then, he asks about Derek reading a book in the background.

Stiles claims Derek is his cousin, Miguel.

Danny notices blood on Derek’s shirt, and Stiles claims Derguel gets nosebleeds. He orders Derguel to change shirts, and visibly making his unhappiness clear, Derguel nevertheless obeys.

I admit to finding these scenes funny, and I acknowledge I shouldn’t. What Stiles does here is unquestionably bad, and I’m uncomfortable with the fact, despite how sensitive I usually am to scenes where characters are put in sexually coercive scenes, this one didn’t bother me until I started to think about it.

If Derek doesn’t do what Stiles wants, all Stiles has to do is say, ‘Hey, remember Derek Hale, the guy who locked me and the others into school? Yeah, that’s him.’ Stiles demanding Derek be quiet, respect his property, and not physically or verbally intimidate Stiles are all perfectly reasonable.

What isn’t is demanding someone partially undress, especially when doing so will expose them to a sexual gaze. I doubt Derek cares Danny is metaphorically drooling over him when Danny’s just sitting there and not bothering him, but he does mind actively encouraging such metaphorical drooling by standing around shirtless. If Derek were a girl, this scene likely would have Stiles vilified by a large majority of the fandom.

A girl is wrongly accused of some incredibly serious crimes. She goes to someone who she thinks might help her. The person agrees, on the condition she respect the fact she’s in his house and in his room, and she does. Being unobtrusive as possible, she sits down and quietly reads a book.

Then, this guy has a schoolmate over. This schoolmate doesn’t recognise her as a wanted suspect. This guy wants something from his schoolmate, and the schoolmate refuses to give it to him. So, using his power, invoking the fact he could easily get her shot at or dragged to jail, this guy makes it clear she had better take off her shirt in front of his schoolmate.

All of this is terrible on its own, but let’s add the fact, just as Derek was, this girl was emotionally and sexually taken advantage of when she was a teenager.

The audience and guy don’t know this, yet, but there are signs. She doesn’t like to be touched. Often when she touches, it’s violent. She’s contemptuous when romantic love is brought up. So far, she’s never been seen dating, having sex, or showing any interest in doing either.

On top of all this, she has a vaguely antagonistic relationship with this guy. However, despite this, she decided she needs to trust him, and in repayment, just as the person she loved and hurt her horribly did, he uses this to his advantage and makes her do things with her body, with her clothes, and with her sexuality, even, she doesn’t want to do.

O’Brien is a talented actor, and he makes Stiles’s darker side an interesting part of the character, but I sincerely doubt even he could keep people from calling for Stiles’s painful death if what I just described was presented onscreen.

Moving on, Derguel informs Stiles of one shirt, “This- no fit.” He tries on a blue-and-orange one, and it’s stripped. He’s under Stiles’s influence, and usually, Stiles’s influence is good, but in this instance, it’s not.

Stiles asks Danny’s opinion.

“It’s- it’s not really his colour,” Danny accurately, tactfully, and awkwardly answers.

As much as I love Stiles’s line, “You swing for a different team, but you still play ball, don’t you, Danny boy,” I’m not sure why or how exactly this plan works.

Danny metaphorically drooled over Derguel, but he isn’t responsible for Derguel being shirtless. It could be argued he should have stood up for Derguel when he realised what Stiles was doing, but he can’t even said to be encouraging Stiles. He’s not getting a date or a phone number in exchange for helping Stiles. Since this show usually handles matters of sexuality so awesomely, Danny is completely unafraid of being gay-bashed.

Stiles could have been hinting he’d have his cousin leave the room, and thus, Danny is agreeing to help so he can keep ogling Derguel, but if so, it doesn’t clearly come across this way.

“You’re a horrible person.”

“I know. It keeps me up at night. Anyway, about that text-”

“Stiles! None of these fit,” Derguel complains.

Danny explains what he needs in order to trace the text.

Back in Allison’s room, Scott finds a receipt from the bowling alley. On the back, Allison labelled it as being her first date with him. Then, he finds her necklace acting as bookmark in the book about the Beast of Gévaudan. Hearing someone coming, he leaves.

Meanwhile, Derguel has found a shirt, and Danny shows them who supposedly sent the text. Stiles protests when he sees the supposed person is Melissa.

Is Danny himself trustworthy in this scene?

At the Argent home, Chris finds Scott picking up his bike. He invites him in, and inside, he says Allison is going for a run. He offers Scott a beer. Scott says he doesn’t need to be tested anymore since Allison broke up with him.

Chris claims the beer’s an offer of sympathy. He goes on about how high school romances burn bright and fade quickly. Once Scott has somewhat let his guard down, he demands to know how Scott knows Derek Hale.

The beer didn’t contain wolfs bane or anything else poisonous to werewolves, and I’m a little surprised by this.

In the woods, Allison is running, and she comes across the Hale house. Inside, Kate surprises her, and it’s established Allison is trying to make sense of Derek supposedly trying to kill them. Here Kate shows her unique, unrepentant self-awareness of her sins and ability to empathise with her victims without being compromised.

She points out if she and Chris were burned up, Allison might come unhinged. “You don’t have to be psychotic to be a killer. You just- need a reason. And even then, sometimes, you can surprise yourself.”

In a bit of what might be irony, there’s no mention of Victoria.

I tend to buy the theory Allison is Kate’s biological daughter. What I waver on is whether she might be a Hale, too.

Kate asks what Allison wants, and Allison emotionally declares she wants to feel strong and not as if she always needs someone to rescue her. Kate promises, with some time and patience, she can help Allison feel this way.

There’s a creepy moment during this where Kate touches her shoulder, and some have connected this to a scene in the credits where a clawed hand touches Allison’s bare shoulder.

Back at the Argent house, Chris brings up the fact Scott has been seen talking to Derek. He insists Scott shouldn’t be scared of him. He just wants to protect Allison.

Coming in, Allison listens.

Scott protests everything he did during that night was to protect her, and Chris kicks him out.

Let’s pretend Scott is human and remember that, at this point, Chris only suspects he might not be. He just drank some beer, and instead of Chris insisting on giving him a ride or having Scott call someone to pick him up, Chris is sending a teenager to ride his bike with alcohol in his system.

What if Scott runs over a small child or an animal? What if manages to stumble into traffic and causes car accidents? What if he falls in a ditch and hits his head, breaks bones, breaks his neck, etc?

Later, at the game, Scott is talking to Stiles on the phone, and in the background, Coach wants to know where Bilinski is. Heh.

In Roscoe, grabbing Stiles’s wrist, Derek joins the conversation. It’s established there’s nothing special about the necklace, and Stiles won’t get to play if he doesn’t show up right away. Stiles wants Scott to tell Sheriff S he’ll be a little late but will be there.

When he hangs up, it’s established they’re at the hospital. Derek points out Stiles isn’t going to get to play, and his tone is questioning when he further observes Stiles didn’t tell Scott about Melissa supposedly sending the text.

Acknowledging he’ll miss the game, Stiles explains, if it is Melissa, he wants absolute proof before telling Scott.

Here Derek is being hit with the fact Stiles is more than just an annoying kid who has a streak of defiant bravery to him. He went to Stiles for safety, but I’m not sure if he even knew why. Now, he’s starting to see.

This doesn’t mean what Stiles did was right, and Derek can never pay Kate back, but everyone else-

Slamming Stiles’s head against the steering wheel, he grits out, “You know what that was for.” He orders Stiles to go inside.

Over at the game, Jackson sits down next to Scott. Explaining only an alpha can turn someone, he warns Jackson about a family of hunters, and Jackson realises it’s the Argents. In an interesting bit of characterisation, their surname is one of the things that makes him believe this. He explains ‘Argent’ means ‘silver’ in French.

At the hospital, Stiles and Derek are talking via phone. Stiles can’t find Melissa, and Derek tells him to try to find Nurse Jennifer.

In Peter’s room, Stiles finds Peter’s empty wheelchair, and I’m not sure why hearing this instantly makes Derek come to the conclusion Peter’s the alpha. Logically, him being the alpha can’t completely be ruled out, but someone in the hospital taking him from the room for a legitimate reason to someone, including potentially said alpha, having kidnapped him are slightly more reasonable conclusions to jump to.

Derek orders Stiles to retreat, and as he’s doing so, Stiles comes across Peter.

Off-topic, but I suck at identifying accents. I have no idea why, but for the longest time, I was convinced Peter was British. It turns out, no, Bohen’s American, and he’s not putting on any accent.

Nurse Jennifer shows up, and Stiles begins to panic.

Cue Derek knocking Nurse Jennifer out and directing Stiles to get out of the way.

“Oh, damn,” is Stiles’s response before he drops to the ground.

“You think I killed Laura on purpose?”

On my end, I’m not sure if he killed Laura at all. There’s a lot of convincing meta about how he could have fought her, and then, someone else came across her in a weakened state.

If so, I vote Gerard.

Ignoring this, Derek attacks, and Stiles crawls away.

The two fight, and at the moment, Peter has the upper hand. Derek is unforgiving, and Peter simply wants him to understand what brought this all about.

I don’t believe Peter ever blames Derek for what Kate did. I do think he knows. Here, I believe he just wants Derek to understand the fire warped him, and whatever happened with Laura, it’s not something he’d ever willingly and intentionally do to anyone in his family, his pack.

However, Derek blames himself for all this happening, and it’s self-preservation to not show mercy to Peter. Showing mercy would be fully admitting this, if not to anyone else, to himself.

On a different note, in later seasons, there are scenes I will declare absolutely didn’t happen, certain characters aren’t who they say they are, and some arcs happened differently than presented. For one thing, I’m absolutely convinced Scott was really the Beast. I believe Scott narrated a large chunk of the show, but I also believe there are some cases of other narrators in play.

In the first season, I mostly think all the narration is reliable, though, there are some things that I’m not sure if it’s bad writing, I’m missing something, or if deliberate unreliable narration is in play.

I realise the above paragraphs would have been better put in my first review, but as my username states, I have a tendency to ramble. My writing is sometimes disjointed. I promise I’m working to try to make it less so.

Here, why is the hospital suddenly deserted? Did this actually happen somewhere else? Is there a detail the narration decided to skip giving a reason why it was empty? Nurse Jennifer using the intercom to evacuate everyone, Stiles, Derek, Peter, or her pulling the fire alarm, someone called an anonymous bomb threat, something?

Back at the school, Harris confesses to Sheriff S that, before he became a recovering alcoholic, he talked to a woman in a bar about how one might go about breaking into a bank vault, dissolving a body, and setting a house on fire.

Sheriff S asks why, after the Hale fire, Harris never said anything, and Hale answers he wasn’t going to risk being made an accomplice.

He draws the symbol from Allison’s necklace. He claims he told Laura Hale that all he knows about the woman was the symbol was on her necklace. She said it was a family heirloom.

He declares the girl wearing the necklace is the arsonist.

Either I’m picky about grammar, or this statement is incredibly shady on his part.

Does he means the girl who **wore** it? Not all family heirlooms are one-of-a-kind things, and as it’s been established, Kate has passed the necklace onto another family member.

Sheriff S’s response is wonderful. He declares the woman is a murderer. Arson destroys property, and the fire took much more than property.

Back at the conveniently empty hospital, Peter corners Derek, completely heals his own face, and insists Derek has to let him explain things. He reminds Derek they’re family.

At the game, the coach is happy Scott and Jackson seem to be getting along. He leaves, and Jackson gives Scott three days to get Jackson the bite.

Up in the bleachers, Allison points Jackson out, and Kate sees the scratches on his neck. She quietly asks Chris is a scratch could turn someone.

This is another scene I’m not sure about. It’s foreshadowing, yes, but aren’t they supposed to know how fast werewolves heal? The alpha and beta have been around for some time now, and Jackson’s scratch would have healed by now if he were an activated werewolf.

I guess it could be: They’re worried about the alpha turning even more people, but this isn’t made clear.

Due to his werewolf senses, Scott hears their discussion. Then, it’s time to play.

At an unspecified amount of time later, Scott is sitting in the locker room with just a towel on. Bursting in, Stiles declares they have a problem.

“Trust me, I know,” Scott answers.

Fin.


End file.
